The Road to His Legacy
by turquoisehawk
Summary: AU. Sai is a go player, aiming to be a pro. Sai is seventeen years old. Sai is Hikaru's older brother. Sai wants Hikaru to get better at Go. Sai is also dying.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **Hello! This is my first HikaGo fic, and it was just something I thought of a while ago. I'll try to update I often as I can, and I'll hope you'll look past the grammar errors and spelling mistakes; English is not my native language. I'm not really sure about this, but yeah... R&R would be much appreciated!

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><p><em>The Road to His Legacy<br>Chapter 1_

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><p>The silence in the room could be cut with a knife. It was suffocating; almost scary. The white walls looked like they were coming closer and closer, and they would soon be crushed. Even if they managed to escape the walls, they would still be crushed. The silence was suddenly disrupted by a badly disguised sob. A thirteen-year old kid with bleached bangs was sitting in an uncomfortable chair, even though he didn't seem to care of very uncomfortable it was, despite the fact that he had been sitting there for hours.<p>

"Hikaru." Someone said. Hikaru looked up at a person lying in a hospital bed. Hikaru's eyes were glazed over and it looked like tears would spring out at any moment, even though he did his best not to cry.

"Yeah?" Hikaru said, forcing his voice not to crack. A sigh came from the person on the bed. He had no hair. Hikaru couldn't divert his eyes from the bald head; before, the person had had long hair, unusually long hair for a man. Now it was all gone.

"Don't cry." The person's name was Shindou Sai. His cheeks were sunk in, and his skin was scarily pale. There was a small smile playing on his lips, as usual. Sai was just that kind of person; always smiling, despite the situation.

"But…" Hikaru said, but he stopped. He couldn't control his voice anymore. He angrily wiped his cheek as he felt the first tear fall down. He had promised himself not to cry. Not yet.

"Will you play a game with me?" Sai asked, motioning at the goban waiting in the corner. Hikaru didn't answer. Instead he quickly got up from the chair and set down the goban on the bed and pushed over the black stones. Sai didn't say anything, just smiled and started to play what he loved the most; Go.

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><p>"We did everything we could." The doctor said in a monotone voice to Shindou Mitsuki. Mitsuki looked through the window to her son's room with a blank face. She watched as her youngest son carefully put down a stone and then glancing up at his brother, challenging him. Hikaru had always been like that. Daring, shameless, never afraid. His brother though was his complete opposite; Sai was calm and composed, and he always had a solution to everything. But they matched each other like only brothers could.<p>

"I know." Mitsuki whispered to the doctor, even though she doubted him. They could've done more. They could've tried something new. Maybe they could try going through chemo again. But deep inside her, Mitsuki knew that Sai's time was running out. Fast.

She was the one who had noticed that something was wrong with her oldest son. She could see the scene inside her head like it had happened yesterday; she didn't think she'd ever forget it.

It had been a day just like any other. Sai had been trying to force Hikaru to play a game with him, but Hikaru refused, saying he would miss his soccer game. Sai had tried stating that go was more important than soccer, but Hikaru had just shrugged and left the house. She'd asked him to help her with the dishes. Dry them and put them into the cabinets. He would never refuse to help her. Misuki handed him plate after plate, and he carefully dried them. Then he'd dropped one. She had glanced over, snickering.

"Oh well, we had too many plates anyway." But Sai wasn't smiling. He looked shocked; scared maybe. She'd asked him what was wrong. He didn't answer. She had seen a flash of panic in his eyes before he tried to grab an already tried plate. He dropped that too. Misuki wasn't laughing anyway.

"What is it?" she'd said in a small voice, meeting Sai's scared eyes.

"Mom," he started with a shaky voice. "I can't grip anything. My hand… it's not working." He said with a tremor in his voice, sounding like a smile once again. He tried to grab a third plate. He had dropped that too.

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><p>"You're playing too aggressively, Hikaru." Sai said softly to his little brother. Hikaru glared up at him.<p>

"I'm not. This is my style." Hikaru really was a sore loser. And if he wasn't leading, he would overplay and lose even harder. That was just one of the flaws in Hikaru's game, Sai mused. He glanced up from the goban to look at the kid with the so odd hairstyle. Hikaru's green eyes were focusing at the goban with an intensity only a go player could possess. Hikaru suddenly narrowed his eyes, grabbed a stone and put it down on a very critical point that Sai, in his musings, almost had missed. He looked up again, this time meeting Hikaru's eyes. _'How about that?'_ Hikaru eyes seemed to say, and Sai smiled again. Scanning the goban, he soon found a path he thought Hikaru hadn't seen. He was right. When he put down the stone he saw Hikaru eyes widen in surprise.

"How…" Hikaru whispered almost to himself, before pouting. "Not fair. You're going to be a freaking pro." Hikaru said, starting to clear his stones. Sai swallowed hard and looked down at his hands. Hikaru's voice, even though his brother hadn't meant anything by them, had stabbed in straight in the heart, right where it hurt.

"I _was_." Sai whispered, and Hikaru's body seemed to freeze to ice. Even the time seemed to stand still. "I _was_ going to be a pro."

Hikaru didn't meet his eyes.

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><p>Hikaru had been at a soccer game with his school club when he found his mother waiting at him by the parking lot. He was feeling great; for once, he had actually gotten to play in the game, and he had made a beautiful pass that resulted in a goal. Coach had said that he'd done really well, which basically meant more playing time. His jersey and shorts were covered in mud, but he didn't care. He greeted his mother with a smile on his face.<p>

"Hey, mom!" he said, but his mother didn't smile. She just looked at him, and that was the moment when he realized that something was very wrong. Very, very wrong.

"Hikaru." She said with a soft voice, and Hikaru's smile was long gone.

"What is it?" he asked, not sure what to expect.

"It's your brother." She said, and to Hikaru, it felt like someone had just gripped his heart with an ice cold hand. "He's at the hospital." Her voice sounded like a ghostly whisper. Hikaru's world stopped right there and then. It simply stopped spinning.

Sai had had a seizure during one of his games. The go stones had scattered in the air, and his opponent was about to ask what the hell he was doing before he realized what was going on. The entire room seemed to stop at that moment, and everyone stared at the shaking teen before calling an ambulance, rushing him to the hospital.

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><p>Hikaru glared down at the board. He could not believe he was losing. <em>Again! <em>He never seemed to win against Sai, no matter what he did. He wouldn't play with handicap though. He refused. Him, playing with handicap against his own brother? No way. He had never played with handicap against Sai, not matter how much Sai crushed him. Sometimes, Sai played teaching go. Other times, he cut him in two.

"You should've protected your territory here." Sai said when their game was done. Hikaru was staring at the goban with a displeased look on his face. "I could attack you by playing there, and boom, your corner's gone."

"Yeah, maybe, but while you're busy attacking my corner, I can attack this group here." Hikaru said, pointing to a white cluster of stone. Sai shook his head.

"No, that's not what you should do." He said, and Hikaru rolled his eyes. "If you do that, I'll simply play here, and then within two hands, they are connected. See?" Hikaru sighed. Sai was simply too good. He could read further ahead than Hikaru, even though Hikaru was getting stronger. Even Sai himself said so.

"You're probably right…" Hikaru muttered to himself, and Sai lifted his eyebrows.

"What's that, Hikaru?" he said with a smile on his face. "I couldn't quite hear you. You have to speak up."

"You're right!" Hikaru said with a louder, clear voice and Sai nodded.

"I know." Hikaru rolled his eyes again. "Don't you have a soccer game soon?" Sai suddenly said, frowning at Hikaru. Hikaru frowned back.

"No, it's tomor…" he stopped and tried to go through his memory. It was the fourth tomorrow, wasn't it? He realized with horror that today was indeed the fourth, and he would soon be in deep shit if he didn't hurry to the game. Sure, he would probably be a benchwarmer, but after the last game… You could never be sure with the coach.

"Crap! I'm late!" Hikaru said, putting back the goban into its place and running out from the hospital.

"Good luck!" Sai said after him before Hikaru sprinted down the hospital corridors. It was just lucky he didn't run anyone down.

He hurried out to the stressful city of Tokyo. He needed to get home to get his bag, to prepare for the game. Maybe this was the game where he would be the MVP? Maybe score a goal or two? Hikaru had yet to score a goal in an official game. But he wanted to. He wanted it so badly.

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><p>Sai stared out the hospital window. The cherry blossoms looked beautiful, but yet sad. He closed his eyes and sighed. He had been so close. So close. And it was all gone. He slowly opened his eyes again, and they landed on the goban, one of his most precious belongings. He loved playing go. He loved the swift elegance it had, it's never-ending complexity. You could never master it; never reach the Hand of God.<p>

But he loved it. A smile started to play on his lips as he thought of his countless games with Hikaru. It was fun. But he wanted a challenge. He was so close. He closed his eyes again. His go would never reach the world of pros.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **Second chapter! Again, sorry for the grammar errors and spelling mistakes, I correct the ones I find but I guess there's a lot I've missed. I'm not sure how this turned out, but yeah. Reviews are loved!

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><p><em>The Road to His Legacy<br>Chapter 2_

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><p>Hikaru could not believe what had just happened thirty seconds earlier. Coach had told him to take number 15's place on the field. He got to play in a game! And it was kind of an important game too. Hikaru couldn't be happier.<p>

He felt the smell of grass and the swift breeze running through his hair. He was running down the field, wearing the number thirteen proudly on his back. The score was 1-2, but their opponents' second goal had been nothing more than pure luck. The other team's star player had fumbled with the ball, almost losing it once, as he had been heading up the field, but somehow the ball ended up behind the goalie. Hikaru still couldn't believe it.

Hikaru shouted at his teammates, suddenly finding himself in perfect position. It seemed like their opponents had forgotten about him; either that or they didn't see him as a threat. Number three saw him, and kicked the ball over. Hikaru was surprised by how easily he could take the pass and start running toward the goal. It was like a dream, but he didn't feel nervous or anything. He would score, even if his life depended on it.

"Shindou! Over here!" Number ten shouted, and almost caused Hikaru to lose track of the ball. But he was in perfect position, why would he pass? It would take a miracle to make him miss the goal. So he simply ignored number ten as an opponent started to run alongside him, aiming to either get the ball or tackle him down. Hikaru put out his arm to prevent the other player to cut him off. He was so close to the goal now; the goalie didn't look entirely in position either. It was perfect. With a quick movement he kicked the ball, aiming for the right top corner. It was almost like slow-motion; it missed the goalie's hands by inches.

But as the ball was heading for the corner, he felt a strong hand push him forward. Hikaru's eyes widened in shock when he realized what was about to happen. He saw the other player stick out his leg in front of Hikaru in the corner of his eye, and before he could react, he was heading for the ground. He didn't even have time to scream, but he felt his ankle twist in a weird way. He could even hear the bones crack; it terrified him. The pain was agonizing. He screamed. Or rather, he thought he screamed, but he couldn't hear anything. His mouth was open, wasn't it? He didn't care. All he could feel, all he could _hear,_ was the pain. This couldn't be good.

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><p>Sai watched his little brother sitting in the corner of the hospital room, and Sai could barely hold back a sigh. Hikaru was sulking. It was really bad this time. He was sitting in his chair, staring down at his hands, and he wasn't moving. His face was like stone. Sai couldn't blame him though. He glanced toward Hikaru's leg. The doctors had put a blue cast on his leg, and he also had to use crutches. It also ruined the rest of the soccer season for Hikaru. Sai understood him. He really did.<p>

"You'll be able to play again next season." Sai said, cringing inside as he said it. It sounded bad even in his ears.

"Light years from now, yes." Hikaru muttered, glaring at his cast. "What am I supposed to do now?" he said, sounding like a little kid that had just lost his candy. Sai pitied him, despite his own situation.

"Well…" Sai started. "You can always study? Your grades could use some work, you know." He said with a grin, and Hikaru glared at him.

"Shut up. There's no way I'm studying more than I have to." He said, and Sai shrugged.

"Then I don't know." Hikaru sighed, almost looking like he wanted to cry. He bent forward and covered his face with his hands. Okay, now Sai was seriously afraid that Hikaru actually _would_ cry.

"Um…" He started, unsure what to say. "Do you want to play a game?" Hikaru looked up at him, his eyes almost, but just almost, looking wet. Then he shrugged.

"Sure. Why not?"

Sai had to admit that Hikaru had gotten better. Some of his moves actually surprised Sai. Sai always read ahead through all the plausible moves, but once in a while, Hikaru did something totally unexpected, and they were really great moves. He wondered if it was just luck or if Hikaru actually had some serious insight.

He put down a stone to try to escape with his cluster of stones that currently were in danger. He had misread a small part early in the fight, and Hikaru had taken advantage of that. Sai didn't expect any less from him. Hikaru was staring intently at the board, before putting down a stone exactly where Sai had anticipated it to be. He quickly put down a stone, managing to connect them. He was able to get out, and with some luck, he then could extend further and then tenuki to move into the corner. If he managed to do that, it was over. It had been a good battle though. The kid really was improving.

Hikaru once again thought hard with an intensity and concentration Sai had never thought the kid possessed a few years ago. Back then, he had been like a rubber ball, unable to stay still. He really had matured. Sai looked down at the board as Hikaru put down a stone, and Sai smiled. He would be able to extend now and be out of harm's way. As he put down the stone, he could hear Hikaru sigh. Hikaru knew that he hadn't been able to kill them.

When Sai managed to tenuki, Hikaru stared down at his lap.

"I resign." He muttered, and Sai smiled at him.

"Don't worry, Hikaru. This game was great, really." Hikaru raised an eyebrow in response, but didn't say anything. Instead, he was staring down at the board.

"If only I'd gone here instead." Hikaru mumbled, pointing at a point Sai hadn't seen before. "Then I'd been able to cut you off by playing here, wouldn't I?" he said with a hint of nervousness in his voice before looking up at his older brother. Sai glanced up at Hikaru. That was a good move. In fact, it would've been a brilliant move.

"That should've worked." Sai mumbled, and Hikaru shone up.

"Lucky for you I didn't play there then." He said with a smile on his lips, and Sai smiled back. He was glad the kid was feeling better anyway, and not sulking like before.

A thought suddenly struck him. It was a strange thought, and he wondered if it would work. Well, it wasn't really a strange thought in that particular way, it was just… he didn't know if the idea he had would be appreciated. He glanced up at Hikaru who was busy clearing the board. Maybe it would work. He should at least try, right?

"Hikaru," he started. "Can you go get me a pen and a piece of paper?" Hikaru frowned at him but nevertheless did as he was asked. He grabbed his crutches and walked out from the room. Soon, he returned with a torn out, small piece of paper and a pencil.

"Why do you want that?" Hikaru curiously asked. Sai smiled at him.

"You'll see." He grabbed the pen and scribbled down an address that he knew by heart before handing it to Hikaru. He quickly took it and read it, focusing on the letters. He frowned.

"An address? What's there?" he asked, and Sai smiled sneakily at him.

"A Go Salon, one of my favorites." Hikaru raised his eyebrows and stared at his older brother.

"Seriously? A Go Salon?" he paused, thinking about it. "Why do you want me to go there?" he asked with a puzzled look on his face.

"I thought it might give you something to do." Sai said, motioning against Hikaru's leg. Hikaru looked down, almost as if he had forgotten the cast was there.

"Oh." He said, then looking at the note again. "I'll think about it." He simply said, but the brothers were interrupted as the door opened. Mitsuki stuck in her head.

"Hikaru, time to go. You have homework to do." She said with a stern look on her face. Hikaru groaned.

"Can't I do them here?" he said with a pout on his face. Sai was quiet, looking from his mom to his little brother.

"No, then they wouldn't be done. I know you two." Mitsuki said, and Hikaru sighed. Sending an apologizing smile toward Sai, he got up from the chair, grabbed his crutches and slowly made his way out from the room. Mitsuki looked at Sai.

"How do you feel?" she said with a lower voice this time, and Sai shrugged.

"It's okay, mom. Really." He then said, and Mitsuki nodded and closed the door. Sai sighed and leaned back in the large, actually pretty comfortable hospital bed. He closed his eyes. It wasn't okay. His head hurt. It felt like there was someone inside his head, pounding at the insides of his skull, forcing his way out. He needed painkillers.

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><p>The next day, Hikaru found himself in front of a small building. He frowned at it, and looked down at the note Sai had written. Was this really a Go salon? It didn't look like it. It looked kind of run-down even though it almost was located in the heart of Tokyo. He double-checked the address. Perhaps he was in the wrong spot? But no, the address was correct with the one written on his note. So he decided to go in. What was the worst that could happen? Maybe the building was the headquarters of a terrorist organization… Well, you never knew.<p>

Hikaru had just gotten away from school. School wasn't exactly his favorite place to be, and it was especially tough now when he had a stupid cast on his leg. Today's classes had all been on the third floor, which meant stairs. It took him years to get to the third floor, and it had actually been exhausting. But on the positive side, everyone had thought he was a hero. Okay, maybe not a hero, but definitely a game saver. His goal had been the ignition the team had needed, and after he had gone off to the hospital, they'd won the game. The team complimented him and said it was too bad he couldn't play more this season. Akari, his childhood friend, had told him that soccer was just a silly game for morons who wanted to get hurt. He'd called her stupid. Now she didn't talk to him.

Hikaru sighed and decided to get this over with. He clutched his crutches tighter before he entered the building. He saw a sign with the words _'Go Salon, second floor'_ and an arrow pointing towards the stairs. He sighed. Great. More stairs. It took him a couple of minutes to get past the stairs, but then he was finally standing in front of the entrance to the Go salon. As he entered, an old man got up from his seat by the counter.

"Welcome." The old man said, before eyeing him. "I've never seen you here before. You new?" he then asked, and Hikaru nodded.

"Yup." He said before glancing around the salon. To his surprise, the salon wasn't entirely empty.

"Have you played Go before?" the man asked, and Hikaru almost rolled his eyes. Of course he had.

"Yeah, I have." He said, and the man nodded.

"How strong are you then, kid?" Hikaru shrugged. He had played Sai so many times but he was always beaten, so he had no clue of his strength.

"I think I'm pretty good. Not too bad, anyways." Hikaru said, and the man glanced over the salon, as if to find someone who could play him. Then his face lit up.

"See that boy over there?" the man said, pointing to the corner. "He's about your age. You can play him." Hikaru looked over at the teen. He was surrounded by some older men, discussing wildly about a game.

"How much is the fee?" Hikaru asked, but the man waved dismissively.

"First time's always free." The man said and smiled. Hikaru nodded, suddenly feeling strangely nervous. What if Sai had been fooling him all this time? What if he right out sucked? Oh well, it wasn't like he'd meet any of this people in his normal life. He walked up to the teen, who now was eyeing him, like he was trying to determinate his skill by his looks. The teen didn't look too impressed.

"So I'm going to play you?" Hikaru slowly asked the teen, who motioned to the seat in front of him.

"I guess." The teen said. The older men had returned to their own games, much to Hikaru's delight. Now, not too many people would watch him get totally embarrassed.

"I'm Yoshitaka Waya." The auburn-haired teen said, preparing the gokes.

"I'm Shindou Hikaru." Hikaru replied. Waya looked like he was maybe one year older than Hikaru, making him fourteen years old. He had a sense of immaturity about him, but he still looked like a pretty clever guy. Well, the guy played go, so it wasn't really a surprise.

"Are you any strong, Shindou-kun?" Waya asked, and Hikaru shrugged. Again, he had no idea how strong he was.

"Let's find out." Hikaru simply said, and grinned at Waya. Waya grinned back and placed two stones at the board. Hikaru reached down in his goke and placed a couple of stones at the board. Five, he counted.

"I'm black." Hikaru said, and they exchanged gokes and bowed to each other. And as they started playing, Hikaru realized that this was the first game he had played with a person other than Sai.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: **Rewievs are veryyyy appreciated :') I know I'm not the greatest writer, especially now when I'm not writing in my native language, but I try my best. The plot hasn't even started moving yet, but yeah, review and I'll be very a happy girl! :*

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><p><em>The Road to His Legacy<br>Chapter 3_

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><p>Before that awful day a few weeks ago, Sai's life had been normal. He had been a teenager, seventeen years old to be precise, just approaching the best time of his life. He had finally gathered the courage to take the pro examination. Before that, he had simply played Go on the internet and in a few Go salons, but when he kept defeating high level dans on the internet, even though he had no idea who they were, he had thought that maybe, just maybe, he would stand a chance against the pros.<p>

He, of course, didn't know that his username, Fujiwara, had caused havoc on the internet.

Sai glanced at his opponent, who was sitting on the other side of the goban and nervously biting his nails. Sai knew why. His opponent was losing. Anyone would see that white was leading by a lot. Black had two large, dead clusters of stones. It wasn't easy for Sai to admit it, but he was actually disappointed. This was the pro preliminaries; he had thought that there would be some players here that could at least bring up a challenge. Maybe they would arrive in the real pro examination. They had to. Sai wanted to face stronger players; that's why he wanted to become a pro in the first place.

His opponent, a small guy with a snarl on his face, narrowed his eyes in frustration. The guy was looking for an opening, for a slight weakness, but it was useless. Sai wondered why he didn't resign already.

He needed one more win to get into the actual examination, and that win was going to be this one; soon, he would be battling for one of the three spots to become a pro. If he actually became pro, he would be able to test his skills against all kind of pros. Touya Meijin, Ogata Jyudan, Kuwabara Honinbou… the pro world was waiting for him. He was going to show them his Go; he couldn't even remember the last time he had lost against someone.

His opponent still hadn't resigned. He was clearly losing and his persistence was becoming pretty obnoxious. Finally, his opponent grabbed a stone and put it down on the board. Sai knew exactly what he wanted to do with the stone; his opponent wanted to cut him off and then move into his territory. Sai had already read it out. It wouldn't work. He quickly put his hand in his goke to grab a stone, but suddenly, he felt a weird feeling in his hand. He froze with shock. It was happening again. He couldn't close his fingers around the stones. It was like his fingers had turned to stone. He glanced down at his arm, and now when he couldn't use it, it just looked like a dead piece of meat to him. He swallowed hard as he felt himself becoming more and more terrified. And suddenly, he lost contact with the rest of the world. His body started to shake, and he couldn't see. He couldn't move. He couldn't control himself. He wanted to scream, but he couldn't. It felt like he was in a fog, and he could hear a voice saying his name somewhere far away. He couldn't respond though. He just lay there shaking, feeling as if his world had ended.

It had.

In the hospital, they had run a lot of test on him. Test after test. There didn't seem to be an end to them. And he just lay there, staring out the window. Hikaru had come and visited him a lot of times. Their mom too. But they couldn't cheer him up. Between all the tests, Hikaru had played Go with him, but Sai was still depressed. He had finally decided to try to go pro, and this was what happened? God probably didn't want him to play Go.

That day, when the doctors had figured out what it was that had caused his seizure, it had been raining. Sai had been staring out at the rain when they had entered the room. He hadn't bothered to look at them. Mitsuki, who was sitting beside his bed, quickly stood up and looked at the doctors with a worried look on her face. The doctors' expression didn't look to good, and Sai could see his mom's skin ashen in horror.

"Shindou-san," the doctor started, looking at her. Why couldn't he speak to Sai directly? He was the patient after all. He felt rather annoyed at that. "After all the test we've run…" he hesitated. "Well, it's not good news." He then said. Mitsuki took a deep, shaky breath, before sitting down again, grabbing Sai's cold hand. But Sai didn't even look at the doctors. He could feel that something was very wrong with him without needing the doctors to tell him. Something was _very _wrong.

"The CT scans of his brain showed us a brain tumor." The words sounded so final, so scary, that Sai simply reacted by closing his eyes. He didn't want to hear this. "Unfortunately, it's malignant, and it has spread unusually fast. If we operate, I'm afraid your son won't make it through this." Mitsuki gasped and Sai could hear her sobbing. Somehow, he had known this all along.

He just didn't want to believe it.

"What can you do?" Mitsuki whispered after a minute of silence.

"We can try chemotherapy, but that's the only thing we can do. Your son's case is unusually bad." And they just had to say it in front of him? Couldn't they have said it outside the room or something? They flat out told him he was going to die. He was glad Hikaru wasn't here.

"Do it." Mitsuki said. "The chemotherapy, I mean. Please save my son." The last words came out as a whisper, and the doctors nodded.

"We'll do everything we can."

Too bad they had failed.

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><p>Hikaru had two choices. He could either respond to Waya's last move by playing a tsuke and secure his territory, but then he would still be behind, or he could invade Waya's pretty unprotected, lower right corner. He settled on the later. With a loud <em>'pachi'<em> he put down the stone close to the star point. He glanced at Waya, who was now frowning. If Waya responded to that move as Hikaru expected him to, Hikaru could make his stone live by connecting to the middle and then trying to gain as much points in the bottom as he could. Would that be enough? He counted the points in his head, and he groaned inwardly when he realized it wouldn't be enough. Waya would still be ahead by about five moku. Too bad. He didn't want to lose this game.

Waya put down his stone in the expected spot, and Hikaru carried out his plan. Waya looked worried there for a bit, but he soon calmed down as he too had realized that he was still in the lead. Hikaru's eyes flew over the goban to try to find a spot where he could gain some points, maybe find a weakness or an opening, but it was hopeless. He played the gamed through yose though, and soon, they were counting their territory.

"I win by 4.5 moku." Waya said, actually sounding surprised. "You're actually pretty good. When did you start playing?" he asked, and Hikaru shrugged. He actually didn't remember. He had started to play with Sai two years ago, even though he hadn't really been playing; he had just been randomly putting down the stones. When Sai had explained the rules and purpose of the game, Hikaru had actually started to have a plan with his play.

"I don't know." Hikaru said, and Waya looked down at the board again.

"Who's your mentor?"

"My brother." Waya looked up again.

"Is he a pro?" Hikaru smiled.

"No. He was trying to be, but things got in the way." Hikaru said, and Waya nodded.

"I see. I'm trying to become a pro too. I'm an insei." He said, and Hikaru frowned at him.

"An insei? What's that?" Hikaru knew basically nothing about the Go world. He wasn't interested in the pros, the titles or anything like that. Sai was the one who read through all the Go magazines, remembered all the title games and played them out on his goban, not Hikaru. Hikaru just liked to play.

"You don't know what an insei is?" Waya asked with his eyebrows raised. Hikaru shook his head. "It's for young players who are aiming to become pro. We play each other, review games and stuff like that."

"Oh." Hikaru simply said. That actually sounded kind of fun. Suddenly, a loud, rumbling noise could be heard from Waya's stomach, whose face turned red.

"Haven't eaten all day." He said with a grimace. "You up for lunch?" he asked Hikaru, and Hikaru was actually rather surprised that Waya would ask him. They barely knew each other. But Waya seemed nice, and after all, he hadn't eaten all day either.

"Uh, yeah, sure." Hikaru said and grinned, and they got up from the table. It took longer time for Hikaru of course, but they had soon made their way down to the street.

"I usually go to this salon with Isumi, another insei." Waya said as they started to walk down the street. "But he was busy today. Said he had a test to study for or something stupid like that. Why he even bothers with the studying is beyond me." Hikaru frowned at that.

"But you have to go to school too, right?" Waya nodded.

"Yeah, but once you become pro, you get money, and if you're good, you get a lot of money. So there's really no need to study. I don't plan on going to high school." Waya said and grinned. "Playing Go is more fun." Hikaru gaped at Waya.

"You don't need to go to high school? That sounds awesome!" Waya grinned again.

"Yeah, doesn't it?" He paused and looked at the area around them. "So what do you wanna eat? Ramen or sushi?" That was an easy question to answer; Hikaru loved ramen. He could eat it every day and all day long.

"Ramen!" he said, and Waya grinned.

"Ramen it is." As they headed towards the small ramen shop, Hikaru reminded himself that he really needed to thank Sai when he got back to the hospital.


End file.
